Cutting number of prisoners while cutting number of police could be dangerous

Is it right to cut the numbers of people in prison down by almost 3,000? Is it right to let people with over fifty previous convictions have another chance and not send them to prison? Is it right to ‘caution’ a thief instead of taking him to court and prosecuting him? Is it right to allow convicted foreign nationals to remain in this country? Is it right to cut the police force down by almost twenty-five percent?

Is it right to cut the numbers of people in prison down by almost 3,000? Is it right to let people with over fifty previous convictions have another chance and not send them to prison?

Is it right to ‘caution’ a thief instead of taking him to court and prosecuting him? Is it right to allow convicted foreign nationals to remain in this country? Is it right to cut the police force down by almost twenty-five percent?

My answer to all of the above would be an emphatic ‘NO’. Your answer to the above may be the same as mine but guess what?

It isn’t going to make one bit of difference what we think for the ‘powers that be’ have got the bit between their teeth and are off and running on a brand new ‘big idea’ that will see less people locked up and more community sentences handed out.

Remember the old saying, "Prison works" well in those days it did. We used to have a prison regime where inmates could work, learn a trade, have access to further education, contemplate their navels occasionally and all-in-all realise the error of their ways.

Then along came a government (led by a lady) that cut down on the number of educational and rehabilitative options available to prisoners and basically turned prisons into holding pens. Well, it seems our cages are now full and instead of building extra prisons our ‘leaders’ want to keep more offenders in the community.

Sounds good if the support facilities are available in Civvy Street. Sounds even better if the probation services are properly funded, and seems positively mouth-watering if it leads to a drop in crime.

You all know I’m a fully paid up member of the ‘don’t hold your breath’ movement and I just can’t see any of this being beneficial to anybody in society except the villains who must even now be rubbing their little black anti-fingerprint gloves with glee at the thought of the plunder and mayhem they can get up to and still remain free to roam our streets.

If there is one reader out there, just one, who has a circle of friends of whom none have been a victim of crime I will eat my hat. I know career criminals who have been in prison three times in the last three years. Wouldn’t it have been better to lock the cretins up for three years at the outset? I have been robbed and prison works for me especially if I know that’s where the villain is!

Yet can offenders be re-habilitated outside prison? The simple answer is yes but only if the resources are in place. Prison numbers are being cut in order to save money yet money has to be made available for these ‘extra-curricular’ options and if it isn’t then I predict the greatest increase in criminal behaviour we have ever seen.

To cut down the number of people behind bars whilst at the same time reducing the numbers of police on our streets is at best optimistic and at worst a real travesty of justice which places you and me in greater danger from the Barbarians at the gate as the Praetorian guard shrinks away into the darkening gloom.

On a lighter note: Have you posted early for Xmas? Did you manage to get your bank to increase your overdraft so you could afford the stamps? Have you noticed that what you once considered a normal size Christmas card now falls into the highest priced stamp category?

I remember the days the Post Office made absolute fortunes year in and year out. It contributed millions to our economy and all various governments did was use it as a cash cow.

Investment was unheard of as the money rolled in. Then along came emails and things changed (but still no investment apart from redundancies). Then along came top management from the private sector (still no investment but even more redundancies and fewer local post offices). Now there is talk of privatising the business but it will still be starved of decent investment and thus be forced to continually put prices up. Sad to see such a great institution wither and die.

And finally: wasn’t the cold weather really great? I notice the ‘global warmers’ and ‘climate changers’ have been rather quiet recently. There has even been an admission that many of their statistics, and I quote, ‘may have been inadvertently exaggerated’.

Funny how if the weather gets nice and warm (summertime) it is referred to as ‘global warming’ yet if the weather turns cold it’s just called ‘weather’.

Thought for the week : A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat and on the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape button.